Brazil to suspend Covaxine vaccine deal
Amid grafting probe Brazil will suspend the deal of 20 million vaccine doses.
Brazil will suspend a $324 million Indian vaccine contract that has mired President Jair Bolsonaro in accusations of irregularities, the health minister said on Tuesday, following the guidance of the federal comptroller, the CGU.
The deal to buy 20 million doses of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin shot has become a headache for Bolsonaro after whistleblowers went public with alleged irregularities.
"According to the preliminary analysis of the CGU, there are no irregularities in the contract but, for compliance, the Health Ministry chose to suspend the contract for a more in-depth analysis," the ministry said in a statement.
As per the report of Reuters, one of the leading opposition senators on that panel filed a formal criminal complaint against Bolsonaro at the Supreme Court on Monday. Senator Randolfe Rodrigues said he wanted the court to investigate "the serious allegations" and to find out why Bolsonaro "did not take any action after being notified of the existence of a giant corruption scheme in the Health Ministry."
In Brazil, President is the head of State as well as head of Government. The Upper house is known as Federal Senate and the Lower house is known as Chamber of Duties. Currently, there are 27 federal units including 26 states and 1 federal district. The 26 Brazilian states are semi-autonomous self-governing entities.
There were approximately 40 parties in 2020 in the country. In 2018, Jair Bolsonaro won the elections as a candidate of PRTB (Brazilian Labour Renewal Party). In the first round he was chosen by 46.03% people and in the second round he got votes of 55.13% in his favour.
